Recently, there has been an influx of electric vehicles being scrapped due to minor battery damage. A light scratch on a battery could force an insurance company to scrap a NEW electric car.
Reports have been highlighted and have started to be called “the trend of low-mileage zero-emission cars being written off with minor damage”.
There is no diagnostic data or the ability to repair the battery packs following a collision or issue with the vehicle resulting in companies being forced to write off the electric vehicles.
Matthew Avery, research director at automotive risk intelligence company said
“We’re buying electric cars for sustainability reasons but an EV isn’t very suitable if you’ve got to throw the battery away after a minor collision.”
Matthew Avery, research director at automotive risk intelligence company
Manufacturers like Ford and General Motors are making battery packs easier to repair and to acces. However one of the biggest, leading, EV manufacturers Tesla have taken the opposite approach with their new Model Y.
The battery actually creates some of the Model Y’s structure which makes it very difficult to remove/replace.
“The number of cases is going to increase, so the handling of batteries is a crucial point. If you throw away the vehicle at an early stage, you’ve lost pretty much all advantage in terms of CO2 emissions.”
Managing Director of the Allianz Center for Technology, Christopher Lauterwasser
It has been estimated that
A rise from a dozen or so every three days to 20 per day of EVs in the isolation bay.
There are currently no EV battery recycling facilities in the UK meaning companies are having to store the written off batteries in containers.
“95% of the cells in the EV battery packs are undamaged and should be reused.”
Michael Hill, head of the UK Salvage company Synetiq
Source: Garage Wire
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